How to process cabbage from caterpillars with folk remedies
How to treat cabbage from caterpillars in order to prevent their invasion or drive out in time if detected? There are many ways, among which folk remedies remain no less effective. With the timely use of a properly prepared composition, the problem can be easily dealt with.
Pest Information
Cabbage beds are often home to white cabbage. She lays eggs on cabbage leaves. After a couple of days, a large number of caterpillars appear from the eggs, destroying the cabbage. The caterpillar is gray-green, with yellow stripes and black dots. The first days, when the caterpillars are still small, they damage only the top layer of the leaves. As soon as their size reaches about 4 cm, the head of cabbage itself is eaten.
Cabbage caterpillars live on average a little less than a month. Then they pupate and turn into butterflies. The cycle repeats again. If you do not start fighting the pest, then over the summer up to five generations of these insects can change. Therefore, getting rid of butterflies, you can be sure that the caterpillars will not eat the crop. Cabbage is affected not only by cabbage caterpillars. The Repnitsa, like the White Sheep, has white wings, but the size is half the size. Caterpillars are green with yellow stripes. The caterpillar eats not only leaves, but also the head of cabbage itself.
Caterpillars of the cabbage scoop are also dangerous to cabbage. Small butterflies, brown-gray color. The green caterpillars are also small. At night, they eat the leaves, forming holes on them. During the daytime, they sleep inside the stump. The cabbage moth is small, reaching about 7 mm. The insect is gray-brown in color with light stripes. The appeared small green caterpillars feed on plant sap and hide on the inside of the leaf.
After 3-4 weeks, the caterpillars pupate, turn into butterflies and become ready for the next generation to hatch.
Green caterpillars manage to spoil the entire crop without intervention. Heads of cabbage are formed small or completely wither and rot. It is better to do prevention than to spend time and energy on treatment.
Prevention measures
There is a simple but proven way to get rid of caterpillars on cabbage. The pest does not like pungent and spicy odors, therefore, experienced gardeners plant near cabbage beds: celery, parsley, cilantro, basil. Smells and flowers such as marigolds, calendula scare away insects from cabbage. Scaring off some insects, they attract the attention of other insects with their smell, which feed on caterpillars. This prevention option is one of the most effective ways.
What to do to prevent insect attacks? In addition to choosing neighbors in a garden with cabbage, they also fight in other ways:
- prevent the growth of weeds and weed on time;
- you need to remove the tops of the last crop and torn weeds from the beds;
- periodically inspect the vegetable crop, the leaves must be looked at from the inside;
- when pests are found, they are removed from the beds and destroyed.
Not all pests can be collected manually. So, for example, the caterpillars of the cabbage moth begin to be active only at night. During the day, they carefully hide at the base of the stump. How to protect cabbage from the spread of pests? In this case, wasps or ants will come to the rescue, as they feed on larvae and caterpillars. To attract them, cabbage beds can be poured with sweet syrup.
Herbal ingredients
What folk remedies can be used to treat cabbage from caterpillars? There are many proven and effective tools used by experienced gardeners. You can scare off butterflies with a decoction based on bitter pepper. Pepper, in an amount of 1 kg, is crushed and poured with boiling water (10 liters). After two days of infusion, the broth must be filtered. The solution is diluted with water before use. Add 150 ml of broth to 10 l of water. “Once we were fighting the caterpillars with a bitter decoction of peppers. The recipe helped quickly. To increase the efficiency I add 40 g of crushed soap. " It will allow the solution to stay on the cabbage leaves for a longer period.
You can protect cabbage beds with a decoction made from hot pepper. For a liter of water, the recipe requires you to take 100 g of dry peppers. The pods are boiled in water for two hours. The resulting solution is diluted with water. The fight can be accompanied by decoctions based on burdock, nettle, onion peel or chamomile. They water the beds. In addition to repelling insects, herbal decoctions will help fill the lack of trace elements.
If caterpillars appear, you can use burdock leaves. They are finely chopped, poured with water and left to infuse for three days. Dilute with water before watering. Spraying plants from butterflies should be during their flight and during the release of caterpillars from eggs. Folk remedies are not complete without onion peels. It is poured with boiling water. After a couple of hours of infusion, add shavings of soap. Water or spray the plants with the resulting solution.
You can pour onion skins along with the onion itself, which has been finely chopped beforehand. It is enough to insist for a day. Strain the infusion before sprinkling the plants. You can also destroy the caterpillar with another infusion. Take tomato leaves and tops, wormwood and finely chop. The resulting green mixture is poured with water, and in a day the infusion will be ready for use.
You can water the cabbage with an infusion based on tomato tops and leaves without wormwood. Chopped greens are poured with boiling water for 4 hours. Then bring to a boil again and cook for 3 hours. The resulting infusion is filtered and diluted in a 1: 2 ratio before watering. You need to process cabbage during the period when caterpillars appear.
You can treat cabbage with an infusion based on garlic. Chopped garlic cloves are poured with water and insisted for a week. For spraying, you need to take 25 ml of infusion and dilute in 10 liters of water. All these recipes will help protect against insect infestation, get rid of caterpillars and stop their further spread.
Other compositions of folk remedies
Many gardeners carry out the processing of cabbage from caterpillars with folk remedies. All formulations have natural ingredients and do not harm the culture. You can process cabbage from whitefly with vinegar solution. A glass of the main component is diluted in 10 liters of water, 60 g of salt and 50 ml of ammonia are added. “We have been fighting this remedy when insects appear for a long time.Only the resulting solution should be sprayed on the cabbage, it should not be watered at the root. For prevention purposes, you can sprinkle cabbage several times per season.
How to deal with whitefly on cabbage, wood ash has proven itself well. You can simply sprinkle it on the soil around each seedling, or make a decoction. Wood ash is poured with water (for 100 g of ash 1 liter of water), brought to a boil and cooked for 20 minutes. After that, leave to cool. Advice from gardeners: “I have sprinkled cabbage with ash broth for a single year. Before use I add water, bringing the volume up to 10 liters. "
An infusion of ash will help with whiteflies. Wood ash is poured with water and left to infuse for two days. In the resulting composition, dissolve 40 g of household soap crushed with a grater. Saves such a natural remedy as tobacco dust, drives away many pests, and helps to cope with the scoop.
You can simply sprinkle cabbage beds with the composition, and there are recipes for making broth and infusion. To obtain the infusion, 50 g of tobacco dust is insisted in a liter of water during the day. For the broth, you need to take 100 g of tobacco dust, add water (10 l) and boil for half an hour. Then leave to infuse for a day, strain and dilute with water, adding soap.
You can poison caterpillars and butterflies with mustard. For the infusion, you need mustard powder in the amount of 10 g. Insist in a liter of water for two days. Before spraying a vegetable crop, the solution is diluted with water in a ratio of 1: 5. Protection is carried out with infusion. Mustard (about 90 g) is poured with a liter of water and mixed well. You need to insist for three days in a closed container.
Before sprinkling cabbage, filter the solution, dilute with water in a ratio of 1:20 and add 40 g of crushed laundry soap.
Harmless ready-made formulations
Caterpillars can also be poisoned with purchased drugs. Biological products without chemistry are produced on the basis of living bacteria and fungi. These drugs are not harmful to humans and animals. Accumulating in the soil, they create a favorable environment for the development of any vegetable crop. Processed vegetable plantings are cleared of pests after 6 hours by the following means:
- against whites use the Verticillin agent;
- if cabbage flies appear, Nemabakt will help;
- to get rid of caterpillars, the drug Aktofit, Avertin is often used.
You cannot use biological products and chemicals at the same time. Living bacteria die under the influence of chemical components, and the result will not be achieved.
